Senior hurlers face Tipp in repeat of last year’s HL quarter-final

Tue, 12th March 2019

All-Ireland champions, Limerick are through to the semi-finals of the Allianz Hurling League and will take on Tipperary or Dublin in the semi-final on the weekend after next. Limerick clinched a place in the last four with a 17-point win over Laois in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise last Saturday night.

The other semi-finals will be between the winners of Galway v Wexford and Clare v Waterford. The three-remaining quarter-finals will be played on Saturday.

They meet for the second time in a year in the quarter-finals, with Tipperary having won by 2-25 to 0-20 in Croke Park last year. Dublin led by 0-10 to 0-2 after 12 minutes before Tipperary powered up through the gears to run out easy winners. Both have changed managers since then, with Liam Sheedy replacing Michael Ryan in Tipperary and Mattie Kenny taking over from Pat Gilroy in Dublin.

Tipperary won two of five games in 1A this year while Dublin topped 1B with four wins from five games, their only defeat coming against Galway.

Dublin and Tipperary met twice in 2017 with Tipp winning both. They won a 1A League game by 1-24 to 1-8 and an All-Ireland qualifier by 6-26 to 1-19.

Tipperary are bidding to reach the League semi-finals for a third successive year while Dublin were last there in 2015 when they lost to Cork by a point.

Clare finished third in 1A (two wins, two defeats, one draw) while Waterford came second in 1B (four wins, one defeat). Clare and Waterford met twice last year, with the Deise winning by 1-23 to 1-20 in 1A before the Banner gained revenge in the Munster championship (2-27 to 2-18).

Clare and Waterford are bidding to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2016, the year they went on to contest the final, which Clare won in a replay.